


Reprieve

by Bulette_Jerky



Category: Carpe Noctem, Vampire the Masquerade - Fandom, White Wolf, World of Darkness - Fandom, World of Insufficient Light
Genre: Brujah that is bad at being a Brujah, The Echo Chamber, a nice night
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-07
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-10-29 00:50:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10843029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bulette_Jerky/pseuds/Bulette_Jerky
Summary: Jenessa has a nice night.





	Reprieve

There are good nights. Jenessa’s not inherently sad, she’d just spent much of her time around Lily, who is, and had cracked open enough to pour all of that out for Jenessa, and Jenessa’s cautious and aware of how dangerous a city like Metatropolis is.

Tonight is good - clear, a little bite to the air but not enough for any ill effects, and Jenessa doesn’t have any obligations right now. She’s technically hunting, and technically practicing Obfuscate, but what she’s really doing is wandering the city enjoying the night. Happening to be wearing a slightly more vivid appearance and watching for lone passers-by is a side effect.

She finds someone, a friendly girl that she’s fed from before, and offers her a meal at one of the handful of twenty-four hour diners that cater to the college. The girl remembers that vaguely at least, even if the Kiss warps her other memories of Jenessa. She asks if Jenessa will stick around instead of paying and slipping away like she’s done before; the girl’s curious about her late-night benefactor. Jenessa agrees - it’s not like she has other things to do tonight. So she orders coffee that she won’t drink but wraps her hands around, relishing the warmth, and slides into a booth opposite the girl. Her name turns out to be Katelyn, she’s a sociology student, a junior, enthusiastically friendly if oddly tired. Jenessa recommends a burger, on the grounds that something solid might help. She listens to Katelyn talk about her classes, a project she’s working on. She tries to get Jenessa to talk more, to little avail. Jenessa claims that she lives around here, and avoids giving an explanation for why she treats apparently random people off the street to dinner at one in the morning. Eventually Katelyn glances at her watch, gasps dramatically, and proclaims that she needs to go home and sleep.

Jenessa keeps wandering after that. She finds herself on campus, and since she’s there, she climbs to the roof of Noyes Lab. The path is familiar, and she glances around the roof like she half-expects to find Demetrios up here too. He isn’t, of course - the bottom of the fire escape she’d taken up had been in its usual position off the ground, and she isn’t sure the Malkavian can get up the last ladder on his own. Jenessa walks to the edge of the roof, drawing shadow around herself to guard against anyone who might look up, and sits watching the quad, her legs dangling off the edge of the building. Faint in the distance is music, some club or party, she can’t tell which, singing its heart out into the late winter. Jenessa looks in the direction of the sound for a moment or two, then leans back against the angled roof, staring up at the stars. The distance helps, offers a degree of separation from the world, lets her focus inward. She turns her attention to the twist of cold, spiked anger that’s been wrapped around her heart the last two years, trying to work some of the barbs loose. It seems to cling tighter the more she tries to control it directly, so she doesn’t try to rip it away now, just loosen its grip, distance herself from it. That’s why the height and the stars are good - everything seems so insignificant against that backdrop.

She’s not sure how long she spends there, but when she comes out of her reverie she’s calm. Her watch says there are still a few hours before dawn, and she leaves the roof, dropping straight down from the bottom of the fire escape and landing… well enough, at least. She’d walked and bused here, so she takes the same methods back to her apartment. The disconnect from the world fades as she moves within it, but the cultivated calmness stays. Back at her Haven, Jenessa pulls a book she hasn’t read yet from one of the bookshelves and curls up in the massive armchair in the corner. It’s warm inside, a pleasant contrast to the chill she’s been in most of the night, and she becomes absorbed in the book, stirring only when a clock balanced on one of the shelves chimes. It’s seen better days, like most of the contents of her Haven, but still works, and Jenessa glances at her watch. She unfolds from the chair, putting the book back in place before heading to bed for the day.


End file.
